Today the universal Church remembers St. Martin of Tours. And I think it is appropriate that today we also remember Veteran’s Day because Martin is one of our saints that served in the military. Martin was born in the early 300s into a pagan family in what is today Hungary. He was named after Mars,…
Excuses, excuses, excuses. In our Gospel today, we hear the Parable of the Great Feast and how so many of the people who were invited to this banquet came up with excuses to get out of attending. And honestly, the excuses weren’t even that great…they really weren’t good enough reasons to cancel. So, what’s the…
So often in our lives as Christians, we are criticized for the things that we believe, the truths that we hold fast to, the things that we celebrate. People often say that we’re old fashioned or clinging to traditions from centuries ago. Many, even within our families, might think we’re a little crazy for continuing…
“Woe to you Chorazin! Woe to you Bethsaida!” In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus does not have kind words for the people who live in these two cities. Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum are the cities that make up what is called the “Evangelical Triangle”…they are the cities where Jesus did most of His preaching and the…
Today we are celebrating the feast of St. Faustina Kowalska. Many of us are somewhat aware of who she was and that our devotion to the Divine Mercy comes from the apparitions and mystical experiences that she had of Jesus throughout her life. Thankfully for the Church, many of those apparitions were written down and…
This morning we celebrate the Memorial of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, twin brothers who were Christian martyrs during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian. The two were physicians who would offer their medical services to the poor and the rich alike. Because of their faith, they believed it was a duty to give back to others…
In our first reading this morning from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians, we hear about what has come to be known as the universal call to holiness. Each of us, because we have received the identity of being sons and daughters of God by way of our baptism, has this universal vocation. That…
In our Gospel this morning, the Lord is reminding us that there are two options where we can spend eternity. We will either end up in heaven or in hell. I wish it weren’t the case, but I think we need that reminder pretty regularly. For all of us, our experiences show us that there…
My favorite quote from St. Augustine comes from his book Confessions. He says this: “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.” All of us are made in the image and likeness of God because of that there is a…
As human beings, sometimes we become fascinated on what everyone else thinks – whether that’s opinions on political candidates, the direction of our government, the important social issues of our day, the responses to various situations and circumstances, the decisions of Church leaders. We all just want to know what people think. So often, we…
Fr. Tom Pringle 